I woke a few weeks ago fresh from a dream.
In it, I was climbing Cyfrwy Arête — the long, exposed scramble that cuts up the northern face of Cadair Idris. Grade 3S★. Technically demanding. Committing. The kind of ground that requires you to be fully present, where experience counts but past experience alone is not enough.
In the dream, I climbed it. When I woke, the question was still there: could I?
I have been feeling better lately. Not well — I want to be precise about that. Nowhere near the person I was before the stroke in 2018. But better than I have been. And for the first time in a long while, I can see possibility again. That matters more than I can easily say.
Possibility is where things begin.
I contacted my friend and fellow student Aled Oddy. Early in our time together on the course, Aled had mentioned wanting to climb together. I had put him off — which is its own kind of admission. I asked him if he'd be willing to help me get fit enough to attempt Cyfrwy again.
He said yes. Enthusiastically.
That was the seed. Like Topsy, it grewed.
What started as a personal objective has become something larger — a documentary film, an academic inquiry, possibly the foundation of a dissertation. A question that feels worth asking seriously:
What does the return to practice actually look like for a senior instructor after life-changing illness — and is there still a place for us on difficult ground?
Aled and I are meeting in April to begin in earnest.
This site is the record of everything that comes before, during, and after.
Croeso. Welcome.
A note on language: Gwella is a bilingual project. The mountain is Welsh, the culture is Welsh, and that is not incidental. Posts will run in both languages. If your Welsh is rusty — or nonexistent — don't let that stop you. Neither strand is a translation of the other; they are the same thought in two voices.